7/11/08

I just got to see the rough cut of a video they made for the History Channel about BNSF intermodal trains. An intermodal train is one of those you see with the big metal shipping containers stacked two high rolling across the road when you want to get to the Dairy Queen just on the other side of the crossing. Anyhoo, the reason I mention it is to reiterate my observation that there ain’t nothin’ dainty on a train. They made a stop at a service facility between Los Angeles and Fort Worth and changed out a turbo on one of the locomotives. It takes a turbo the size of a Datsun to make 4,200 horsepower. That is not an exaggeration either. I know I am prone to hyperbole, but the unit they swapped out weighed 1,800 pounds and was as big as a Datsun 1200. Not the 1200 engine, the whole car. It was friggin’ awesome! I also feel the need to point out that horsepower number again: four thousand two hundred. And that is per locomotive, there were three of them dragging that 7,000 foot long train. Ok, there’s another statistic which needs perspective. Seven thousand feet is a mile and a third long. We’ve actually run 10,000 foot trains before as well. That is almost two miles from cab to caboose. Ok, so they run ETDs now instead of cabooses but it is still a long way. Oh, can you tell I think it is kind of cool working for a railroad? Big heavy stuff moving seventy miles per hour tends to bring out the kid in, well, most of us I'd say. But back to the locomotives, those 4,200 horsepower, while impressive, pale when you consider the torque those engines produce. I did the math on the numbers provided with the models on static display in the lobby. A 4,200 horsepower diesel locomotive engine running at redline, which is somewhere around 1,500 rpm, is cranking out roughly 14,700 ft/lbs of torque. That is some serious twist! Of course, if I remember correctly, the bore and stroke on those twelve cylinder behemoths are in the neighborhood of 12” and 16” respectively. Let’s see, if bore times bore times stroke times Pi is divided by four then multiplied by the number of cylinders we get the total displacement. So ((12x12x16xπ)/4)x12=7,238 cubic inches, or 119 liters. That is almost 100 times the size of a Datsun A-12 engine! It “only” makes 62 times the horsepower of an A-12 but an A-12 will rev 40 times as fast. So what? I don’t know, y'all are the ones reading this drivel. I know that doesn’t make any sense, shut up. So, I get a call from Kevin telling me that Jesse has Barbara licensed, insured, and inspected. I guess he’s driving her regularly now. I'll know for sure Saturday if she’s gone. I'd sure like to help him get either wheels and tires or a zorst on that thing this weekend. Of course if he can hold off on the zorst until we build him a Weber DGV, we can slap on the header, an A-12 intake, and said DGV then go have a system built. Oh, I thought about it some more and I don’t think I'll offer him the DCOE manifold after all. I'll hang on to it for something of my own. Actually, now that I think about it, I might not offer him a header either but that ceramic coated manifold I have. I need to call Kevin. No, I'll wait until they come see me again and we’ll all discuss it. I'm beginning to think that the single DCOE and header would be cool in Herman or the Louisiana Purchase as a shop whore and runabout sort of thing. I still want to chop the top off of Herman and make a Slowster. Of course with that intake and zorst, it might not be all that slow. It could be a lot of fun actually. I wonder what all the glass and the roof of a 1200 weigh. Factor in the replacement of the stock seats with plastic buckets and skinning the doors and I'll be we could shave a couple hundred pounds from Herman. Crap, now I think Herman might cut in line ahead of the Chickenhawk and the Rally Car. We’ll see. I just got off the phone with Gregg. I think we’re going to Genghis Grill for lunch today. I don’t really need to leave campus for that long, nor do I need to eat that much, but I'm sure we’ll still do it. Oh, I was thinking about Herman some more too. I think what I'll do, if I do anything that is, is clean up the engine from Gigi, install the header and DCOE, then drop that assembly straight into Herman. I'll probably throw in a B-310 front suspension, or whatever we have lying around, and leave the rest alone. Well, I'll cut off the top and replace the seats with those plastic drag race/dune buggy buckets Juan finds at swap meets all the time of course. Oh yeah, I'll remove the doors and weld in a couple bars to fill the gap and support the center of the car. Since the thing will never be pretty, I'll probably take some sheet metal and bend it to the approximate shape of the doors and attach that to the bars. Actually, I'll more likely rivet it to the fenders and lower sill then bend the top over the top bar. We’ll see. Well, Gregg is on his way to pick me up for lunch. I guess I'll quit gassing on about nothing. Perhaps I'll have a good tale to tell on Monday. Toodles.